On the soundtrack of Barack Obama's journey to the White House there is a special place for Love Train, the R&B standard that became the anthem for party unity at the Democratic convention. Obama reprises that theme today when he boards a train from Philadelphia to travel to Washington for his inauguration. Prospective presidents have arrived in this fashion as far back as Lincoln. But Obama departs from tradition by taking along a few dozen of the Americans he met on the road to the White House. He will board his train amid the crumbling grandeur of Philadelphia's 30th Street station just after 10am this morning to make the 135-mile journey to Washington.

The Obama camp has made much of the inclusion of the "everyday Americans" aboard the inauguration train. But this morning's send-off is restricted to state officials and about 300 carefully selected campaign volunteers.

Members of the public will get their chance to see Obama further down the line, when the inauguration train stops at Wilmington, Delaware, to pick up native son and incoming vice-president Joe Biden. The two will travel together to a rally this afternoon in Baltimore's war memorial plaza.

Lincoln took a train to Washington for his inauguration in 1861, but his was a furtive journey. The president had been told his life would be in danger because of southern sympathisers. He secretly brought forward his travel plans, passing through Baltimore at 4am while leaving Mrs Lincoln to carry on with the scheduled itinerary.

Obama's journey has provoked far more elaborate security measures, with chemical and radiation detectors installed along the route. Boats have been banned from some rivers the train will pass over. But such concerns will not prevent Obama from following what by now is a hallowed route.

Woodrow Wilson took the train to Washington for his inauguration in 1913, waving at the crowds along the route. Franklin Delano Roosevelet stopped in Baltimore to pick up his son James. Bill Clinton also held a pre-inaugural event in Baltimore and the Maryland suburbs of Washington. Even George Washington rode his horse through Baltimore - but he was travelling in the opposite direction. His swearing-in was in New York.

Imagine the irony for American newspaper publishers. On what are expected to be their best-selling days in decades, the streets of the nation's capitol will be virtually locked down, making newsstand and home delivery a logistical challenge akin to the Normandy invasion